• Bookcase with Text Strategies For Finding Your Novel's Title
    For Writers

    Strategies For Finding Your Novel’s Title

    July 24, 2017

    Finding a fitting title for your novel can be a frustrating, tear-inducing, hair-pulling process. As I understand, editors and publishers might toy with and tweak your title before your book is published, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a strong working title for your WIP! A unique title will help your query stand out as you seek publication, and having a title that fits your work well can keep you focused on the overall message of your story as you write it.

    So, how do you select a fitting title? There’s a billion methods, but here’s a few strategies that could work for you:

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  • For Writers

    Use Your Character’s Strengths and Weakness to Build Your Novel’s Plot

    July 17, 2017

    Whenever I’m developing a plot for a story, I feel a little like a seamstress trying to make a whole quilt out of a few scattered, seemingly mismatched patches. I have a sense of an ending, a few random visuals or snippets of dialogue, and, if I’m lucky, the mental images of three or four characters I want to go on this journey with. The act of writing then becomes finding more patches and an overall working pattern to connect all this disparate pieces into something warm and snuggable, that you want to wrap up with in front of a cozy fire.

    What I’ve found is that, when you’re still in the process of brainstorming ideas of your story, it can help to take a good long look at your characters. Ask yourself, what are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? And how can I use those strengths and weaknesses to create the successes and triumphs of that character’s story arc?

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  • For Writers

    What Is My Writing Process? (BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE)

    July 10, 2017

    This month’s Beautiful People Meme (hosted by PaperFury and Sky @ Further Up and Further) is all about the Writer’s Process. If you’re a writer looking for a glorious link-up to participate in, head on over to the blog and snag the questions! And if you’re curious about the ins and outs of my writing process, keep reading!

    1. How do you decide which project to work on?

    A highly scientific process of data collection and cost/benefit determination, of course.
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  • For Writers

    Are You A Straight Shooter or a Moonwalker? What Order Do You Write In?

    July 3, 2017

    With all this talk about the editing process and organizing a writing binder, it can’t be stated enough that every writer has a different, personal approach to tackling a story. Some like to research extensively before they ever put pen to page; others prefer to shoot through their story, slapping notes like [INSERT FLOWER NAME HERE] for Future!Them to figure out later. (I may or may not be this type of writer, and it may or may not be endlessly frustrating.) Some writers like to have their story meticulously plotted, others like to fly by the seat of their pants. When it comes to writing the actual meat of a story, there seems to be three distinct categories a writer might fall into:

    The Straight Shooter, the Moonwalker, and the Jumping Bean.

    The Straight-Shooter

    These writers are like Jon Lovett: straight shooters widely respected on both sides. They begin at the beginning and end at the end, always writing in sequential or chronological order. Chapter One is completed, then Chapter Two, then Chapter Three, and so on. Whether drafting or editing, they stick to the story exactly as it’s meant to be told.

    Pros of the Straight Shooter: These writers tend to be well organized, and working in strict sequential order keeps them in the headspace of their story. They get a good feel for how the plot naturally unfolds, traveling with it each step of the way.

    Cons of the Straight Shooter: If Chapter Seven is giving the Straight Shooter trouble, it can be very difficult for them to move onto Chapter Eight. (A funny, nagging feeling starts plucking at their brain, oftentimes somewhere behind the right eyeball, and it can be obnoxiously difficult to get rid of–the only known remedy is to cave and go back to Chapter Seven.) They might feel the need to have every chapter in order before they’re “allowed” to move onto the next, and sometimes this can cause major stalls in the writing process.

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  • Happy Writer Editing Advice Stop Characters Looking Staring Gazing
    For Writers

    How to Make Your Characters Stop Looking At Everything

    June 26, 2017

    Happy Writer Editing Advice Stop Characters Looking Staring Gazing

    Hello again, all you happy writers (and editors) out there! As I’m still knee-deep in edits (or neck-deep, or–when exactly am I certifiably drowning?), I’d like to address a problem I’ve been working on with today’s chapter revisions — the dreaded (and constant) use of the phrase “looked at”.

    You’re probably familiar with the problem. You picture your scene like a movie playing out in your head, and find yourself inserting “stage directions” into your writing. As each new development occurs, characters swivel around to look at the person speaking, to stare indignantly at their rival, to gaze up at the source of a sound, to glance at a plot point. It all sounded good in your head as you were writing it down, but now that you’re reading the scene over again, the words looked and gazed, glanced and stared appear in almost every. single. sentence. What do you do? How do you keep your characters from constantly looking and staring and glancing and turning towards each other?

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  • For Writers

    Inside My Writer’s Revision Binder

    June 19, 2017

     Hello, happy writers! How’s your summer treating you? Crushing those word counts? I’m still waist-deep in editing my WIP, and while it’s immensely difficult, I am seeing incremental progress — it’ll all come together eventually, right??? Editing a novel can be overwhelming, especially as you try to keep all your notes and your revised plot outline straight in your head. For every decision you make, there are about a thousand alternate routes the scene or chapter could’ve taken, and it’s a lot to wrap your mind around!

    In an effort to take control of my life this process, I’ve created a Revision Binder — a central hub for all of my notes, a way to track my progress, and a handy tool that offers a quick look at my plot, broken down into key moments.

    Come on in, I’ll show you what I’m talking about!

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  • For Writers

    Have You Ever Based A Character On A Real Person?

    June 12, 2017

    Hello, lovely writers! It’s Monday, which means it’s time for another post about the weird, wonderful world of writing. Lately, as I revise this beast of a novel, I’ve been thinking about where my characters initially came from — and how far they’ve traveled since those original conceptions.

    From first draft to tenth (or twentieth, who’s counting), some of my characters have changed gender, changed skintone, changed personality or physicality; some look exactly like my original idea but act nothing like them; and some are exactly the same as they were that first day I put pen to page and gave them life. Interestingly, some that have changed the most from my original mental image were characters that I had initially modeled after a random actor — either because the character itself naturally evolved, or because my interest in that actor, for whatever reason, flatlined, and the character morphed accordingly.

    I’m wondering, have you ever based a character on a real person? An actor, maybe, or someone from your real life? Do you find that method more helpful, or more constrictive than creating them from scratch? I’m going to go through those three options below, and unpack my feelings about each a little more.

    (Coupled with some peeks of my character aesthetics boards on Pinterest, because I can’t get enough of them, okay?)

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  • For Writers,  Motivation

    What Are Your Writing For?

    June 5, 2017

    It’s always good for writers to have goals, be they weekly word goals, to write a short story every month, or get a book finished every year — But I was wondering, lovely writers out there: What is your end goal? What is it that you’re working toward?

    What are you writing for?

    At what point will you consider yourself successful, or your writerly wishes fulfilled? When you hold your published book for the first time? When you see your work on the shelves of a bookstore? Why do you want your story to be published? To see your name in print? To make money? To tell a story you desperately want to tell? What makes you excited to finish your writing?

    For me, I really want to know that I’ve entertained someone, that I’ve given them a few minutes or hours of escape. Reading has helped me out of countless depressive episodes; when you’re feeling listless and lost in the world, it can be so amazing to pick up a book, get engaged in the story, and remember how to feel feelings again. So, if someone reads what I’ve written and tells me it got them through a bad night, through a plane ride, that it cheered them up after an exam or long day, that something I wrote made them smile or laugh, I would be walking on cloud nine.

    Consider your end goal often. Do something to remind yourself why you’re writing. Write your goal down on the first page of your writing notebook, or scribble it on a Post-It note that you mount above your desk. On days when the work seems endless and the story too difficult to wrangle, remind yourself that you’re doing this for a reason. You want to share your characters with the world. You want to see your name on a printed book. You want to sit on a panel of authors at a convention and share your knowledge as an equal, an authority. Or, you want to get someone through a bad night.

    Hold onto why you’re doing this. Whatever your motivation, whatever gets that story out of your head and onto the printed page, it’s worth it. And it’s worth reminding yourself of, from time to time.

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  • For Writers

    Developing A Fictional City ~ Worldbuilding for Fantasy Writers

    May 29, 2017

    Creating a city from scratch can be an intimidating task for a fantasy writer — you want your city to feel like a living, breathing place, with its own personality, elements of fun and fantasy, and believable enough and descriptive enough that the reader can imagine themselves plunked down into the middle of it.

    Consider some of the best, most vividly written cities in fiction. Closing your eyes, you can see the snow-capped cottages of Hogsmeade that look like illustrations on Christmas cards; you can see the colorful and extraordinary shops of Diagon Alley, cluttered with stacks of cauldrons, barrels of beetle’s eyes, hooting owls in ironwork cages; shoppers in ankle-length Wizard robes. You can see the stone buildings climbing up the mountainside of Gondor, you can see the shifting grass plains of Rohan, can picture the Shire with its farms and flowers and so many green hillocks punctuated with round front doors.

    Ugh. You can literally smell the honeysuckle and the pies cooling on windowsills.

    Fantasy villages, towns, and cities are scrumptious to read about, they’re visceral and eye candy and exciting. So, how do you go about creating one such (or many such) cities for your own fantasy novel?

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  • For Writers

    Is Your Character Asking Too Many Questions?

    May 22, 2017

    We’ve all had those moments when we’ve had to come to terms with the fact that the character we envision in our heads isn’t quite the person staring back at us from the page. Their voice, their mannerisms, their decisions, aren’t quite what we imagined in our heads. Maybe your gallant heroine came out of your first draft with rather darker motivations than you intended, or there’s something about your love-interest’s behavior that, for no reason you can quite put your finger on, really makes you want to drop-kick the guy right out of your story.

    Here’s an unexpected problem I stumbled across in editing my WIP—my main character sounded younger, more naïve, and, frankly, whinier than I ever meant for him to come across. Luckily, it wasn’t hard to identify why.

    The dude asked too many questions.

    Do you ever get irritated when someone treats what should’ve been a casual conversation as an opportunity to straight-up interrogate you? Since when did small talk come with a side order of psychoanalysis? Have you ever been trying to concentrate on something, only to have someone standing at your side asking you question after question after question, until your nerves are rattled? (Well?? Have you???)

    My character spent much of the opening chapters of my WIP asking questions about the world around him. While a lot of the information imparted to my character during these exchanges is essential to moving the plot forward, there’s no reason this grown adult needs to sound like a precocious four year old ceaselessly demanding to know “Why?”

    If your character is constantly asking questions, they can come off as younger, more naïve, and — frankly– more annoying than you intend. Find a more engaging way to impart crucial plot information than bland interrogations between characters. 

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